Customer Reviews

That Scandalous Evening

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I enjoyed this book tremendously! It's the first I've read by Miss Dodd, and it won't be my last. I liked the clever banter between her main characters. Miss Higgenbottom's experiences are hysterical, particularly when she discovers why her scuplture isn't quite accurate in its depiction of the male physique. I chuckled out loud when she realized her error. Yet I found her to be endearing in her innocence. Miss Dodd does a nice job of developing her characters, tells an entertaining tale, and she writes terrific steamy love scenes that go on for pages! This is a delightful read! I highly recommend it!

This was my first book by Christina Dodd, and I found it very entertaining.

Eleven years earlier during Jane's first season she makes a terrible mistake, she falls in love with Ransom Quincy, the Marquess of Blackburn. Unfotunately he doesn't feel the same way about her. Jane is an artist and decides to sculpt a nude statue of Blackburn, with only a teeny weeny little fig leaf covering him. Another unfortunate occasion occours when everybody finds out about the statue and of course a scandal erupts, for not only did she sculpt Blackburn in the nude, she also sculpted him with such a small fig leaf. It doesn't help that later that week Jane is found at Blackburn's residence unchaperoned AND in a compromising position. She is ruined.

Eleven Years Later. Jane comes back to London as a chaperone to her very, very beautiful neice Adorna. Blackburn is back in London after serving for England in the Napoleonic Wars. They meet again at a ball and sparks fly, not to mention a few tempers, since Jane has grown up quite a bit in the past 11 years. Blackburn is immediately smitten and they find themselves in another compromising position, only this time Blackburn agrees to marry Jane in order to save her reputation.

A great book overall and I highly recommend it to anyone who loves the Regency period.

Christina Dodd and indeed many of her contemporaries delight in bringing us female characters who show strength and independence in the mans world that was the Regency era. But here that truly is the best thing about the very enjoyable story that is `That Scandalous Evening'.

Jane Higgenbothem was completely ruined 11 years prior to the opening of the book, when as a result of a nude sculpture she made of the man she worshiped as a god (Jane's words, not mine), her subsequent behaviour and the resultant public scandal, Jane fled the fashionable ton. He sister died shortly after, and Jane has spent the intervening years sketching, painting, bringing up her niece, and spending a miserable time as unpaid housekeeper to her penny pinching brother in law. With the exception of the joy of spending time with her niece, she has generally lived in a state of near poverty and dependence on an unwilling relative. Now, however, it is time to launch Adorna in society, and her brother in law has told Jane that she will not be welcome in his house once Adorna is safely married.

The object of her desire, Lord Blackburn, more than any embarrassment at the scandal per se, was scandalised instead by a singular inaccuracy of the statue, that made him a laughingstock. Now hardened and saddened by his experiences at war, he has returned to London a more weary, more mature individual. He meets up with Jane and is intrigued by her, but more than that recognises that the protection of the resurrection of their scandal may enable him the breathing room to scour the ton for a suspected traitor and spy.

I knew I'd like the book, because Dodd wrote it and I've enjoyed every other that I read. That turned out to be the case of course, but I enjoyed it even more than I thought. Jane is such an intense person, who feels things so deeply, so passionate in her rages and hurts, so intense about her art (she has not sculpted since That Scandalous Evening. As soon as she does, she gets into trouble again). The call of the art of Europe is a genuinely strong one, and her love for Adorna, her beloved dead sisters child, is all that holds her to England. Even as she falls in love again with Blackburn, she is torn by her love for and joy in her art.

We get inside Blackburn's head on occasion, which was necessary for me to like him (otherwise I'd have to wonder what Jane saw in him). Jane's view of him is remarkably perceptive, except of course that she has little idea of the depth and warmth of his feelings for her.

It is delicious to become so involved in a character, and caught up in the emotional storm with them. I very much enjoyed this book for that reason, and highly recommend it to all readers of romance.

This was the first book i read by CD and it has started me on my quest to search for all that she has written. i have read countless romances, following my resent fixation with the era, and this was the ONLY one that captivated both the time and the theme. all other romances seem to place modern day heroines in the past, dressing up twentheith century hard ball vixens in victorian dresses, with only physical attraction between the main charecters. in this book, you find the calm, poised reserveness of the heroine much closer to the truth of the time. the small details, such as the walk around the ball room the first time the main charecters are reunited and the scence where Jane admits she cannot scream, she is too reserved are brilliant. brought together with histerical conversation between Ransom's sister and her suiter and Jane's vain attemptes to understand exactly WHY the stautue she sculpted was so embarresing this plot is made strong and enticing, the charecters all the more real and passionate for the emphasis on their charecteristics and not their physical attributes. Jane strength is represented through out the book by her refusal to be mindlessly wooed by the dashing gentleman and her love put to the ultimte test when sha is betrayed. Ransom's charecter is sculpted and refined throughout the book, with significant flashbacks to show how his shalow and boring chrecter was reshaped and redefined. his love is undeniably proven when he, the Lord Blackburn, gets down on his knees in the dirt and beggs forgivness of his beloved. this book is a must read!

I have read many CD novels but this is not one of her finest. This was probably the first of her books that I have had difficulty finishing. I like my heroines strong and insensible about the right man, a man who earns her love, not one who is irritatingly senseless about a misogynistic cad. It was difficult to fathom Jane's love for Ransom, a man who simply ignored her and found her quite pathetic during her debut year and after 11 years it was hard to believe that she was the 'one' for him all along. There was just no development of Ransom's love for Jane, and it seemed more one sided on Jane's part, which made her appear pathetic. Jane's constant pining for Ransom was just irritating until she finally developed some semblance of a backbone at the very end.

The only redeeming part about this book, which earned it one extra star, was the relationship between Lady Goodridge, Ransom's sister, and Fitz. At least one person had a spine, if not the heroine.

Jane has a gift with clay and in her first season, she falls for Blackburn and decides to model him. Unfortunately, being an innocent school-room miss, she misses some 'vital' detail and when the statue is exposed by a malicious rival, both Jane and Blackburn are in shame.. but of course, for different reasons!! Years later, Jane is chaperoning her niece to town when their paths cross one more time and the story begins...

This is NOT your everyday Regency story, so don't expect to be bored or to go through the pages looking for the 'juicy' parts. The whole book is 'juicy parts' and Christina Dodd will never allow you to flip through a page without reading every word in it!

Excellent reading, different, original, and very-well written.

Having just finished re-reading this book, I can't help feeling that there is something missing from the story. Miss Jane Higgbothem worshiped Lord Blackburn during her first disasterous season. The action in ths story centers around their interactions when they meet again years later. What seemed missing was more detail/explanation about the two characters feelings for each other. I wasn't really sure why Miss Higgbothem felt so strongly about Lord Blackburn, or whether he felt anything for her or was just using her as a distraction for his other activities.

The secondary characters were the saving point of the story for me. The scenes involving Blackburn's sister and those with Miss Higgbothem's niece were delightful and fun.

After the mystical A Well-Favoured Gentleman, Christina Dodd's That Scandalous Evening is a very down-to-earth story about a very pompous Marquis and an artist heroine. In fact, this is a book where the hero plays the role of the true villian as well.

Having spent eleven years in poverty and under a miserly brother-in-law's care, Jane Higgenbottoms finally reappeared in society after a scandal to chaperone her niece. Of course she met the Marquis of Blackburn, Ransom, again and sparks fly all over for the both of them. I'm not going to reveal the nature of the scandal, except that it involves the nude statue of Ransom - go read it! :)

Anyway this is a very strong story of Jane's growing realisation of her own self-worth and strength. Throughout the book she spars with the very pompous, very arrogant Ransom, and she is determined to control her life even as things go beyond her control. I like Jane, she is intelligent and strong enough to stand up for her convictions and ideals.

I have problems with Ransom initially. He is, at first glance and all the way to the final last two chapters, stubborn, pompous, arrogant, self-absorbed, and a villian of the story. But Ms Dodd redeemed him towards the end, when he begs forgiveness from Jane.

I walk away from this book feeling that thoe two will do along pretty well. Their love is not the ideal love one might have wished, but it is strong, strengthened by the imperfections of both of the characters. My only complaint is a lack of epilogue. I dearly want to read about a repentant Ransom building Jane her studios and taking her to Italy. My enjoyment is slightly undermined by only having to imagine that, and not getting any confirmation from the author!

You know, I really hate to say, I don't like a book by a fellow Texan...But I just didn't like the book....So there you go...


The characters were not warm and fuzzy, hard to get to know. I would almost say empty of feeling.....I think the end of the book was the best part...not saying it to be mean...it really was a pretty good ending...

I needed reading material for a lot of hospital sitting, and this one took everything, just to get through it. Was good enough to keep reading, you know, like one of those movies, you watch in the wee hours of the morning..and its just awful, but for some reason you keep watching it, mesmerized, and it haunts you for the whole week, in your tired brain.
But you never watch it again, and you keep wondering, why did you keep watching it.

That Scandalous Evening is one of Christina Dodds lesser entertaining novels. The plot and characters are coherent, but the unlikability of the main characters mars reader enjoyment.

Miss Jane Higgenbothems obsessive devotion to the handsome and arrogant Ransom Quincy, Marquess of Blackburn, led her eleven years before to sculpt a secret, full-sized naked model of him in clay. Unfortunately, someone stole the sculpture and unveiled it at a huge party where she, Blackburn and the rest of the ton beheld the exquisite but scandalous art object in horror. Jane was so socially ruined that she had to leave London. Lord Blackburn, an arbiter of society, was laughed at but not ruined. In revenge and passion he nearly deflowered Jane before her departure.

Now Jane is back with her gorgeous, charming and insightful niece Adorna, who is making her societal debut. For his own secret and unromantic reasons, Lord Blackburn decides to pursue Jane, only to find himself falling in love with her even while he suspects she may be a spy for the French. For her own part, spinster Jane is no longer the love struck, naïve girl who worshipped Blackburns perfect body and grace so many years before. She does not trust his advances yet is unable to completely rebuff them.

This novel is marred by a hero and heroine who are both too stuffy and proper. In addition, Blackburn has an insufferable superiority complex and cruel indifference to others that makes him very unattractive, despite any good looks and superficial charm he may possess. He eventually (very late in the book) grows beyond these, but without the earlier glimmers of goodness, its too late. I disliked him most of the book.

Jane is a talented but self-repressed artist who is afraid of offending others by practicing her art. I did feel sympathy, but her utter propriety at all times was boring. Toward the end she became annoying when she refused to even consider that Blackburn might really love herwhen he, his best friend and others repeatedly stressed his love for her. Also, she refuses for too long to forgive Blackburn his former suspicion that she could be a spy. She wont allow herself to show him any affection and is harsh and bitchy with him at every opportunity. While it would be horrible to find out that ones husband had suspected one of being a spy, she carries it too far and comes off as mean-spirited.

I have enjoyed other Christina Dodd novels and hope that future ones I read will not be spoiled by such unlikable characters.